


Written in Stone

by TheAnswer



Category: The Silmarillion and other histories of Middle-Earth - J. R. R. Tolkien
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-16
Updated: 2017-10-16
Packaged: 2019-01-16 17:16:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 289
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12347091
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheAnswer/pseuds/TheAnswer
Summary: Nerdanel left behind in Aman





	Written in Stone

Darkness weighed on her like iron chains. Her breath felt stifled as though she had been breathing in soot in the forge. And now that Arafinwë had returned, weeping and telling of Aqualondë and the Doom of Mandos, the Darkness felt heavier still. Alone, she turned away from the city, up into the mountains of the Pelori, where Fëanor and she had wandered in happiness so many years ago. Nobody stopped her. No one would even meet her eyes. 

She carried with her a small bag, such as she had carried in her early journeys; in it, some lembas, water, her stone cutting tools, a flint to make a fire, some rope. She climbed up into the darkness of the woods, memory guiding her. And then farther up, where the forest gave way to grasses and then farther still, where there was rock. 

For years, she worked in silence and in darkness, chiseling, grinding, polishing, all by feel alone, and neither elf nor Maia came to disturb her. Sometimes she saw from the cliff, specks of light in Tirion and in Valmar, to match the specks of light overhead. Fëanorian lamps. She turned back to her work. 

And one night from Valmar came a great uproar. She turned around to see a light rising into the air. Silver like the light of Telperion. And she saw the moment the light fell on her work, and the clamor turned to silence as the crowd turned to see. The face of Fëanor writ large upon the cliffs of the Pelori, staring down into the cities below. The Valar may have shut their ears to those who had rebelled and left Aman, but she would defy them to ignore those who remained.


End file.
